[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.308
OPTUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(
[1370]
C O 3443
[January 13.]
SECTION 1.
69 3 FEB 1
No. 1.
(No. 463.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received January 13, 1911.)
Peking, December 24, 1910.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your telegrams Nos. 160 and 161 of the 20th instant, and to transmit to you herewith copy of a note which I have addressed to the Wai-wu Pu, embodying a full statement of your views on the situation which has arisen in consequence of the refusal of the Chinese Government to negotiate a new opium arrangement on the basis which had been accepted in principle, and indeed suggested, by themselves.
Although the Chinese Government were already fully aware of the consequences which would follow from the rejection of our proposals, I considered it advisable, as suggested in your telegram No. 161, to communicate to them the portion of the telegram from the Viceroy of India which emphasises the point that unless a fresh agreement is made and ear-marking of opium for China commenced on the 1st January it will have to be postponed for another year, as there is no way of preventing the whole of next year's export of Malwa opium leaving India in the month of January.
As my telegram No. 205 of the 22nd December will have shown, I am inclined to think that, even if China does not accept our proposals, we should continue to reduce the export from India on the scale contemplated in the expiring agreement. China, it is true, has confessed her inability to produce the statistical proof which we have a right to require before grauting this concession, but the reports of our own consular officers, notably those of Sir Alexander Hosie for the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, and Kansu, of Mr. Langford Smith for Szechuan, and of Mr. Rose for the province of Yunnan seem to me to indicate that sufficient has been done in the way of reducing the cultivation of opium in China to justify as in continuing the reduced export from India.
On the other hand, I do not think that China can reasonably expect us to commence ear-marking opium for China. To meet Chinese requirements on this point, we offered to adopt an arrangement which the Chinese themselves admit to be a generous concession, and after some four or five months' negotiation they suddenly rejected the offer within less than a month of the time when the arrangement was to be put into force.
Influenced by an irresponsible and ill-informed agitation, the Chinese Government have apparently come to the conclusion that opium cultivation in China can be stopped in a much less period than seven years. By a resort to measures which no western people would tolerate, and which would entail much misery and probably considerable loss of life, such a consummation is not perhaps impossible; but it seems to me highly improbable, and in any event it is not a sound basis for dealing with a problem of such magnitude and complexity. China has still much to do before she can claim to have rid herself of opium, and a gradual sustained effort is more likely to ensure permanent success than any sudden and sweeping change, which might result in failure, or, even if temporarily successful, produce a subsequent reaction.
I have, &c.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ch'ing.
J. N. JORDAN.
Your Highness,
Peking, December 23, 1910. I DULY reported to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the substance of the conversation which I had with the presidents of your
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